EU hits Elon Musk X with €120 million transparency fine

Highlights

Elon Musk’s social network X was fined €120 million ($140 million) by EU tech regulators for violating online content rules.
The billionaire who bought the platform for $44 billion in 2022 said the DSA rules amount to unacceptable censorship.
X joins other major US tech companies previously targeted by EU fines.

Under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), X misled users by assigning blue checkmarks that created confusion about the authenticity of accounts and failed to provide sufficient data access to researchers. The fine followed an investigation into the platform’s compliance with DSA transparency requirements launched two years ago.

The bloc’s technology regulator stated that users could be misled into believing that accounts with blue checkmarks were verified, even though anyone can pay for the feature. The regulator also said it found evidence of malicious actors abusing the system.

In addition, the European Commission said X lacked transparency in advertising practices and failed to provide data for research purposes, as required by EU rules.

“Specifically, X prohibits qualified researchers from accessing its public data, for example through data scraping, as stated in its terms of service,” the Commission said.

Under the Digital Services Act, which came into force two years ago, the EU can impose fines of up to 6% of an online platform’s global annual revenue for failing to tackle illegal content and disinformation or for breaching transparency rules.

European Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen said the fine imposed on X was proportionate and based on the nature of the violations, their impact on EU users, and their duration.

Protecting users and the EU internal market

In response, Elon Musk, who bought the platform for $44 billion in 2022, said that DSA rules amount to censorship of speech, which he considers unacceptable. He was supported by US Vice President J.D. Vance, who stated that the EU should support free speech instead of attacking American companies “over nonsense.”

Meanwhile, the fine imposed on the platform is part of the EU’s broader policy toward major US tech companies, following previous fines against Meta and Apple. This could force X to reconsider its premium subscription model.

Earlier this year, the EU fined Apple and Meta a total of €700 million for violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Apple was fined €500 million ($570 million) for limiting how app developers interact with users regarding alternative offers and promotions. Meta was fined €200 million (about $230 million) for its “pay or consent” model, which forces EU users either to pay for ad-free access to Facebook and Instagram or consent to targeted advertising.

As we wrote, Elon Musk sales X to his own company

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